FBi Radio and Time Out are excited to announce the nominees for the inaugural Sydney Music, Arts & Culture Awards to be held at The Marquee at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday December 7th.

Our very first nominees for the Sydney Music, Art & Culture Awards (SMAC) Awards, across 10 categories, all reflect the brilliant diversity, energy, vision and talent offered by the cultural community of our fine harbour-side city.

The prestigious SMAC OF THE YEAR Award recognises a cultural entrepreneur who’s given the most to Sydney over the past year; our cultural hero, our trailblazer. The 2008 nominees for SMAC OF THE YEAR are: Actor, writer, director extraordinaire, BRENDAN COWELL who has performed, directed and written his way across stage, film and tv in 2008 including a stand out performance in Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet. From the remnants of Lanfranchi’s Memorial Discoteque comes our next nominee the CAB SAV COLLECTIVE, a part dance, part indie festival who have thrilled audiences at their packed out shows during 2008. The gentleman behind re-invigorating Sydney’s cultural wave of summer, Sydney Festival director FERGUS LINEHAN is our next SMAC of the Year nominee. Nominee number four, the Raise the Bar movement, set to change the way we mix our cultural drinks . And last but most definitely not least, music industry promoter, record label honcho, all round cool new music hunter and gatherer, Modular’s STEVE ‘PAV’ PAVLOVIC.

Acknowledging those who have been re-imagining what’s possible in the city’s physical spaces is the SMAC REMIX THE CITY Award and this year’s nominees include: Andy Uprock (Cuprock), Art and About, Biennale at Cockatoo Island, Forest of Lines (Pierre Huyghe, Sydney Biennale), and Sydney Festival First Night.

Now, Sydney-siders have the opportunity to have their say in Australia’s only publicly voted cultural accolade that recognises true originality, creativity & innovation. It’s time to vote! All you have to do is go to http://www.smacawards.com and start clicking!Voting closes Sunday November 30.

THE SMAC Awards will be held on Sunday December 7 at The Marquee at the Opera House, hosted by The Chaser’s Chris Taylor with a swag of Sydney musos, artists and creative types in attendance.